206, 2/2

— He opened his eyes.

He was on the porch of his house, at Yggdrasil, at Candlepoint.

For a long moment, Erick just breathed. And then he started resummoning Ophiel, because he had moved very far away from the little guy and Ophiel had popped. The little guy responded to his renewed existence as he usually did when he was accidentally unsummoned; with squeaks and flute sounds and unhappy chimes. Erick apologized as best he could while petting the little guy, and also sending out telepathic messages.

Within moments Poi had reappeared at home, and Erick got to talking about all that had happened with one of the few people he could trust with this sort of thing. After a while, Poi suggested and Erick agreed that it was time to call in Teressa, and also Aisha, who were both still in the Benevolence Research Tower.

Both women were very worried about odd things that they had sensed, and then even more worried as Erick told them what was happening all across the world right now, and what his response could be. There was worry, yes, but also a specific request that mirrored Rozeta’s earlier request.

As the sun set in the west, Erick opened the way into his Gate Space, and led Teressa, Aisha, and Poi inside. As the entrance shut, and the sky started to tangle, Teressa and Aisha locked Sight with Benevolence. Whatever they were seeing was something special, but what Poi saw, standing next to Erick, was the same thing that Erick saw when he was here with Rozeta, not two hours ago.

A misty tangle of shadowy spots in the hundred year wall. A tangle of shadows hovering on the edge of the platform, spilling life and death onto the white stone.

And an orrery of black tangled planets orbiting in the distant sky.

Poi stared.

With zero reverence at all, Poi gestured to the nearest ‘planet’, saying, “That one has to be Yoril. I’m pretty sure that if it was filled with water that the shape of those dark spots would be the major continents. Not sure about the order of the other ones, but I’m rather certain about Yoril there.” He kept his eyes locked on the sky, saying, “You should be a dragon, Erick. More power is the safer option for you, no matter how much you think vulnerability makes people able to approach you. Vulnerability is also a weakness, and while your defensive measures haven’t been tested yet, I would prefer that when they are, that you are found as resilient as adamantium.”

Briefly, Erick wondered if he could just become a wrought.

“Not possible,” Poi said, “Wrought are not like flesh and blood people. You could become a lich, though? If you had a tutor and the desire to be that way, you could, but that would certainly change who you are. Becoming a lich always turns a person into some monster for a good decade or more before they’re able to get hold of their transformation. Becoming a dragon is the safe option.”

“An hour ago you were terrified of this whole idea. What changed?”

“You being a dragon means you’ll never need a guard again. I’ll still want to be by your side, but you won’t actually need me like you do now. You won’t need anyone.”

“… That seems awfully lonely, Poi.”

Poi pointed at the dark tangle, touching upon the edge of the platform, spilling green life and then turning all to ash right after. That cycle of death and birth continued, as Poi said, “Teressa and Aisha are having a moment, and you’re going to talk to them for another hour or two when they come out of it, but in the end you’re going to make this decision on your own. If your options are remaining as you are, and eventually becoming a full Wizard, who is still rather vulnerable to concentrated annihilation, or becoming a dragon, resistant to every sort of magic out there, practically unkillable in either form for they just revert to their dragon form and start rampaging, with all the innate damage reduction of a dragon’s body and the magical power therein…

“The choice is obvious.”

Erick said, “It’s still not obvious to me. No one should have as much power as everyone suddenly wants me to have— Rozeta wants me to be able to fight Melemizargo if it should come to that.”

“The gods have been giving you power for months and years, already. They just recognize what is possible now, and Rozeta’s specific concern is yet another major reason to pick this option.”

Erick watched the sky.

After a moment, he breathed out, and his decision settled.

The tangle of shadows on the edge of the platform turned wispy. Green life exploded from the ground, and then the tangle vanished.

Poi breathed deep, saying, “Good choice, sir.”

Teressa jolted, coming out of her trance. She turned to Erick. “Ah. Okay then.”

Aisha calmly exited her trance. She turned to Erick and gently went to her knees, before kowtowing fully. She whispered, “My king.”

… Erick needed to allow that display, he supposed. He thought that maybe he shouldn’t, but he had seen a lot of people professing obeisance to him in the last months since he became a king. Aisha’s new display was just an extreme version of what he had already seen.

Still, though.

Still it was a lot.

Erick broke down, saying, “Get up, Aisha. We’ve only been working together for a few months. I cannot possibly have more than 65% of your loyalty.”

Aisha lifted her head. “You have 100%, my king.”

… Well okay then.

Erick turned to Poi, saying, “Can you verify that it’s still me afterward?”

“Since you won’t be affected by the Curse, then that’s not an issue. As for being a dragon: aside from desiring to assert your authority over an increasingly larger area, and from slight new bonuses in cognition and otherwise granting you new insights into your own position in life, becoming a dragon does nothing, mentally.” Poi said, “And you’re already doing all that, so separating the two combining factors will be like trying to pull blue dye out of blue water.”

Erick glanced over to the edge of the platform, at the new riot of green blanketing the white stone, where the tangle of shadows had been. He had made his decision, and apparently it was a good one.

So why was he hesitating?

– – – –

“It’s like with all those [Reincarnation]s you did to others, Erick. It’s terrifying being turned into someone and something else.” Rozeta said, “Even if the next form is categorically stronger, smarter, faster, and healthier than the previous form. Even if in your next form, you’ll be better able to pursue all the good things you were already pursuing.”

Erick sat on a chair made of clouds that was neither a chair, nor made of clouds, in the middle of an endless blue sky that was not sky at all, nor was it blue. Rozeta stood in her white wrought form, right beside Erick. Now Rozeta might have been real. Or at least Real.

And Erick felt like he was in a dentist’s chair.

“That might be part of it,” Erick said, trying to come to terms with what was happening, and his odd reclined position. “But I don’t think anyone should have this much power at all.”

Rozeta smiled softly. “You’re one of the few people in this world that I would trust with this much power. But since you’re worried, I feel I should tell you about the next world: if Melemizargo cooperates and doesn’t create Ancients, and his Shades don’t create monsters, one of the small things that the Relevant Entities have decided is that there will be a lot less Script assistance. One of the few things the majority of us have agreed upon is that [Teleport] will not be purchasable for a single point. The release of that magic out into the Open Script was only ever an emergency response to a dire situation, which never got repealed when [Teleport] turned out necessary for continued survival against my father. So if you don’t like people having this much power, then all you gotta do is hold the world together for all of us for the next hundred years.”

Erick actually felt good about that. He smiled a little. “Is that all? Just survive?”

“I’d prefer ‘thriving’, so if you can [Strike] that it would be most appreciated.”

Erick spoke in order to distract himself, “I’m a bit surprised that Darkness makes mana, and yet, it makes a lot of sense. And yet, I cannot see that part of my soul at all.”

With a friendly attitude, Rozeta said, “That fact was why it would have required a full referendum from the Relevant Entities to make protean’s mana generation like that of dragons’. We gods could do it, if we all worked together and you contributed a lot, but that sort of thing is not lightly done, for it surely would have attracted my father’s undivided attention.”

“… He’s probably going to try and fuck this up somehow.”

“I don’t think he will, actually.” Rozeta said, “I don’t trust him at all. I don’t trust that fairy, either. I don’t fully trust a lot of people, Erick. But I trust you, and you are a Wizard, so you can technically fight back against him. You might even be able to win for a little while, when it is most necessary; you and Kirginatharp, and all the wrought and all the dragons you will bless, and all the people you will raise in your kingdom. In a hundred years, we might actually be able to force my father’s compliance, because, yes, he probably will try some shit. Him, or any of the other tens of forces out there that are powerful, but too damned selfish to build a better world the way it should be built.

“The angels, who inherit all their predecessors’ whims. The demons who had been replaced by the souls of incani, but who fell into the same patterns as the Old Demons. The dragons of Ar’Cosmos. The coming fae. The undead of Quintlan and their soul horrors. And whatever forces you make to help combat all of those other forces.

“Will your ideas of how magic should be taught pan out well? Or will you have to cull the very generation you raise?

“Does your idea for the Crystal Forest turn out well? Or do you accidentally unleash Crystal Mimics through your Gate Network, and infect the world?

“And what about my father’s capture of that unique Soul Ooze, which threatened all the world if it had been allowed to grow for one more night? I still have no idea what he is doing with that, and I hope it is nothing too deadly, once it is finally revealed.

“For make no mistake, Erick, power is necessary in order to do all the good you want to do.

“Know now, what I already know: that the power I invest into you today is going to a good cause; the continued safety of all this world, and all the worlds to come.”

Erick breathed, listening to Rozeta, Dragon Goddess of the Script. By the time her voice fell silent, she was no longer the white wrought woman she had been. She was a sky-spanning dragon, a twisting river of white scales and faint golden flames, and eyes of brightest, white gold. From high above she gazed down at Erick, and asked,

“Are you ready?”

Erick tried a joke, “It’s like you’re asking me to marry you.” And then he suddenly realized what he had said, and he found himself whispering, “It’s just that there’s a lot of that going around… And…” His voice trailed off.

Rozeta grinned. “Maybe I’ll be your mistress in a hundred and twenty years, after you get some skill using your new form and I’m not so busy. Go ahead and mate and marry and be happy long before that, though. I am not a jealous lover.”

“… Ah.”

The world went white.

Rozeta’s voice surrounded him,

“You’ll see the part you need to help at, and it will be instinctual at that point, Erick, so just do that, and this all will go well.”

The world went blank.

– – – –

In a white room, something shifted.

A darkness displaced the center of the room, only becoming visible in that displacement, as it was joined with another, smaller shadow, hovering to the side. And then another smaller shadow joined the first interloper, followed by a second and a third, and then there were more small shadows in the room than there was darkness.

But the white room was not a room, and the darkness and the shadows were neither of those things, either.

Erick blinked.

Ah.

This was where he took over.

Well. Based on the not-shadows all around the not-darkness, they should all be one, right? Just, shove this one in there, and then— bam!

They all go together, just like this.

Not-shadows rushed into not-darkness, and became one in the same, and then the depths inverted and a well of white light poured outward, shining with flickering lightning.

And then… Nothing.

The original darkness and all the other shadows were gone.

The room was white again, as though nothing had changed at all.

But maybe… It felt more real?

Whatever the case, the room was not a room, the dark was not the dark, the flickers of lightning were not lightning. But maybe, down there in that corner, and then over there in the other space…?

Those flashes of white that crawled like tendrils and then vanished as soon as they appeared.

That certainly looked like Benevolence.

The entire room looked like Benevolence.

It probably was.

One thing stood out from all the rest, though.

Down in that corner that was not a corner, was a circle of black with a white center that was not a circle of black. It was an eye, peering through a crack in the world.

The Darkness looking inward, in approval.

Or rather.

Almost approval.

“Just a single… small change—”

The room shifted.

“—and we’re good!”

– – – –

Erick woke up with a headache that rapidly passed.

He was in his bed, in his room on Yggdrasil, and he was human-shaped. A happy laugh escaped his throat, unbidden, as a quiet joy filled his heart. He was still human-shaped. He sighed, and then he turned to the other people in the room.

“Hello, Poi, Teressa. Kiri.” Erick glanced up at the white [Scry] eye hovering above, that looked just as concerned as Poi and Teressa did. “Glad to see you back for a little bit, Yggdrasil.”

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye hovered directly above him. Poi stood on the right side of his bed. Teressa stood beside him. Kiri was on his other side with a multicolor Sunny loosely wrapped around her neck, who was also looking at him.

Ophiel chirped on the headboard, flapping his wings and growing a few more eyes to look down on Erick as he sang in happy violin sounds.

Poi smiled, saying, “Welcome back, sir.”

Teressa grinned. “Now I don’t have to ever worry about leaving you alone. You’re your own tank, now.”

Erick sat up, propping himself up on his pillows as he chuckled, saying, “I think I’ll have to rely on you to guard myself and the entire realm with your Sight now, Teressa, instead of with your arms.”

“I won’t let you down, Boss!” Teressa said, blushing with embarrassment and joy.

Kiri whispered, “So you really did it, then? You did the Benevolent Dragon thing?”

Some blue boxes began to blink into existence before him. Reading them was the work of a microsecond, but while their contents and implications were surprising, they were nothing truly unexpected. Not really.

Erick focused on his direct surroundings. From the chairs set up in his room, and a few scattered bits of food, and a half-full pot of coffee over there, it looked like he had been unconscious for a while. A day? Maybe.

Erick said to Kiri, “Yup. I did. It was the best option of the paths laid down before me, and I can already tell it worked perfectly. I’m thinking of Kirginatharp and others right now, and I have no desire at all to go fight them, or take their lands, or anything like that. Plus, the notes from Rozeta said it was a success.”

Not a complete success, though. Not the way Rozeta had intended.

Poi said, “Ascendant Prime has measured you, as you requested. You have zero personality shift.”

Erick smiled at that, too.

“But still…” Kiri shook her head. She put on a smile. “I’m glad you’re okay, Erick. I’m also glad to report the kingdom has not fallen in your absence.”

Erick chuckled. “I can already tell that. I don’t even see any new construction on the shores of the lake. What’s it been? A day?”

“Two.” Kiri said, “The transformation was…” Her voice trailed off.

Poi said, “The transformation was rougher than Rozeta expected it to be, though you went through the worst of it with her. When she delivered you unto us she said to take care of you, and you should wake in a few days. We’ve been taking shifts. Jane is on her way back.”

Warmth spread through Erick’s heart. “I love you all, too.”

Teressa blushed. Kiri blushed, too. Poi just smiled softly.

Hearing that Jane was coming back, which meant she was okay, was the only thing he could not check on himself, so he was glad to hear that. He could even go back to bed if he wanted. At that moment he realized he still felt a little sleepy, so he almost wanted to lay back down, even though he had never really risen, but it was time to get up. And yet, he decided to stay propped up on pillows for a little while longer.

He had some thoughts.

Erick asked, “So does that mean that Jane found her sword?”

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“She did not,” Poi said.

“Tell her I’m good, then tell her she can continue the search.” Erick said, “Last I heard she and her team were killing hidden Ancients down there in the dark. They should keep doing that.”

Poi said, “She will be thrilled to hear all of that, though she will want to speak to you directly. You missed her last communication.”

Erick briefly closed his eyes, still smiling, as he said, “I will be ready to receive her condemnation of this completely un-undoable decision at a time of her choosing. Make sure she knows that, please. There is no going back from this.”

Kiri asked, “Can I give you my condemnation, now?”

“Ahh! But Kiri! You are the apprentice, remember? Here’s a lesson for you: sometimes the gods want assurances of the future, and if you’re the best one to provide those assurances, then they stuff you with as much power as you can handle.” Erick added, “Apparently.”

Teressa nodded. “Apparent King.”

“Apparent dragon,” Kiri muttered.

“And also Apparent Wizard,” Poi added.

Erick smiled, then said to Kiri, “Go ahead and give it to me.”

Kiri breathed deep, then began, “You STUPID MAN! How could you endanger yourself like this! How could you endanger the kingdom like this! I’m out there turning the land livable and you’re in that House making people work together and now you throw this NONSENSE into the mix! Do you know how many dragon fights we’re going to get here now?! Even if you can put them down yourself…”

Kiri spoke for a while.

Erick listened.

Then he rose from bed and gave the girl a hug and told her everything was going to be okay. Kiri bawled on his shoulders, talking about how worried she was, and that dragons were dangerous, and how he was already a Wizard and that everyone was going to worry way too much about him and someone would probably do something crazy.

Erick listened again.

Jane’s words were rather similar to Kiri’s, when Erick finally got to have that conversation.

Jane was doing nice in the Underworld, though. Almost figured out a Prismatic Domain!

Not quite there yet, but she was getting there.

Erick went to the House next and caught up with Zolan about what had happened while he was gone. Thankfully, nothing much had happened at all. A lot of letters. A few meetings between offices to sort out some administrative tasks. A lot of normal meetings that Zolan had expected Erick to be there for, but which he had handled himself. There had also been quite a few anonymous questions and a few not-so-anonymous appointment requests from people who were obviously dragons.

Zolan said, “I know what it looks like when someone requests anti-Dragon Essence treatment from Oceanside, and I know what it looks like when those requests are probably from real dragons trying to sneak in and murder the Headmaster. I’ve seen dragons pull a lot of shit over the years, Erick.” He gestured to the 15 letters that sat on Erick’s desk, between him and Erick, saying, “Those are outright [Reincarnation] requests from real dragons, or threats and demands for Benevolence-transformations. That’s the kind of shit that the Headmaster would respond to with utter annihilation and consumption, because that’s what all those sorts of meetings would devolve into if those sorts of people ever openly appeared near Oceanside. In my time, the Headmaster had standing instructions to hand these sorts of letters directly over to the Dragon Stalkers, and for him to never be involved at all.”

Erick read over all the letters in a flicker of mana sense, Perception, and Intelligence quickness, and he was glad to report to himself that he felt nothing of the Curse which plagued Dragon Essence. If he had, he would have wanted to kill every single one of these people.

And if that had been a worry at all, Erick wouldn’t have even been having this conversation with Zolan right now, for Erick wouldn’t put himself into that sort of position, and Zolan wouldn’t have shown Erick these letters in the first place.

Zolan did not know that Erick was a dragon, though.

Only Erick’s family knew, and also Aisha. And Rozeta.

… Zolan would probably know soon enough, and maybe at the end of this meeting, but not right now.

Erick picked up one of the letters that didn’t quite fit what Zolan was telling him, though. It was a letter written on pale blue paper, inside an envelope of darker blue. “This one is from a dragon who has halfway escaped the Curse already, though she is also a lich from Quintlan. What do you make of this one?”

“One of the safer ones to actually accept a meeting with, actually. Zenipeq, the Ice Wraith Queen, is a rather stable force over in Quintlan, though she is a horrible necromancer who has [Stone Pathway]ed the way for others to follow in her steps, to drown the world in undeath as much as she could. Someone is going to try to assassinate her the very second you [Reincarnation] her, if you choose to do that, so be prepared. She’s probably going to be prepared, too, with guards of exceptional quality and loyalty.” Zolan said, “She’s a truly dangerous person to be around, but… Not much more than all the rest.”